High Times Magazine is Leaving New York for Los Angeles

High Times magazine is moving to friendlier—and, arguably, higher—ground.

By the end of April, the once-outlaw monthly known for its bud centerfolds and opposition to marijuana prohibition plans to leave Manhattan for Los Angeles.

Lax medical marijuana laws that date back to the 1990s have long fostered a booming, quasi-legal cannabis industry in California. That business is expected to explode next year, when a recently passed referendum allowing adult use takes effect.

The decision to leave its home of 43 years was not a hard one, a longtime executive of the magazine said.

“The center of the cannabis universe has moved to California,” said Matt Stang, chief revenue officer at High Times. “New York used to be a liberal bastion.”

Despite a thriving marijuana black market in New York City, the inability to legislate from the ballot box the way California does has turned the state into a backwater in the cannabis universe, Stang said.